Going where the children are

Published 2:42 pm, Thursday, August 22, 2013

If you are interested in children's health, it makes sense to go where the children — and their needs — are. Schools offer a ready, concentrated, time-certain supply of both.

We laud University Health System's opening of the first school-based health clinic in Bexar. This is at Collier Elementary in the Harlandale Independent School District, with three other clinics planned later in the school year. One in the San Antonio Independent School District is slated next.

This move buttresses a view that appeared in a recent article in this newspaper's Opinion section. Elliot Haspel, an educational leadership expert, wrote, “Health care policy is education policy.”

Much of the work of the system he runs is “to keep people out of the hospital,” he said.

This is win-win for schools as much of their revenue depends on attendance. Healthy children miss less school.

Bexar County's children need the attention. Access to health care correlates to income and about one in four of the county's children lives in poverty; one in seven lacks health insurance. The health profile for 2011 compiled by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District revealed that 46 percent of the children in the school districts tracked were at unhealthy weights. Obesity and diabetes are linked.

These clinics will offer immunizations, physical exams, minor acute care and prescriptions. They will take most forms of insurance, including Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

There will be a flat fee of $15 but here, to our ears, is the best part: No child will be turned away.